I'm learning how to stitch smocking... not quite as easy as you think it's going to be, is it? And I think that the longer I spend putting in gathering threads beforehand, the easier the smocking is... First effort I used two gahtering-threads an inch apart (it's very fine stuff, this one) and got lost and went wobbly very quickly!

I'm making replica 17th century baby-clothes for the christening of a friend's first baby in August - unbleached cotton shift, like a nightie, with smocking in dark red thread at the shoulders; then an unbleached cotton coif for the head, like a sort of bonnet, and a dress in deep cherry-red linen with decorative smocking on the chest and sleeves, which does up from neck to waist and then is left open so you see the shift underneath - I think I'll feather-stitch the shift's hem in deep red too!

I'm really enjoying this!!!!!

laura

These two garments sound so beautiful and what treasures you are creating for this family friend. I hope you will treat us to some photos when you are finished. They sound absolutely divine.

I so enjoy hearing about your projects Laura. You are so willing to tackle difficult and challenging ones! Well done you.

Jacquie x

Yes, they do sound beautiful and I hope to see some photos.

She's not a family friend - I met her at a weekend away last summer and she was pregant then so I said to let me know when the baby arrived if she'd like some "authentic" baby clothes!

Obviously a blind eye is turned for practicality's sake, but if the parents are in historical clothes, it seems a pity for the baby not to join in - and this will fit over a modern babygro and nappy, so with luck the baby won't feel any different - making it a little larger than it needs to be so it doesn't feel swaddled up and trapped in the August weather!

I love making things for people and the great thing about babyclothes is that they're so tiny that you can do complex needlework and still have it finished quickly!

The next project is a shift, full skirt and bodice (those two in cherry-red linen) and a linen coif for a little girl aged about 8 - she comes along with her dad, who's a single parent, and they can't afford to buy ready-made - and there's not much second-hand kit available for girls, so I'm going to enjoy myself running up the basic outfit for her.

I'm hoping as a surprise to make a ragdoll in 17th century clothes for her too, since she can't take her beloved cuddly toys along as they are too modern! That way I get to make posh clothes, scraps of velvet and maybe some glittery braid and so on, great fun!

I will post some photos for you. The smocking on the shift I finished in bed this morning and it's distinctly wobbly and a bit lop-sided, but that will actually be totally hidden in wear by the overdress, so I decided not to undo it all yet again and re-do it a third time, but to leave it and get on with the rest!


laura

So these clothes are for your reinactment hobby I would guess? Well, again I say, you're really talented! (round of applause for Laura)..

Jacquie x

Round of applause for my two grandmothers, more like!!!

I was often 'parked' with one or other set of grandparents in childhood and so I grew up with the household skills of the era around the Great War! They sit within a daily routine that's typically C21st, ie no daily housekeeping routine at all, but the skills are very very old ones...

So for me, although I'd never done smocking before, I knew how it worked and although I tried reading written instructions, actually I got on better once I put the book away and just sewed! It's the same for most textile things. If I wasn't taught how to do it, I can pick it up quickly because I was taught so many things and taught them very well. I am slow at many of them because I've never done the thing enough to get up speed, but it will be accurate and neat (unless I decide to just let it go at 'okay' like the shift's smocking!).

That's why last year was so awful when I lost most of the use of my hands, then my arms, finally my spine... and was told after 11 months that it was incurable... Three bloomin' cheers for the wonderful SuperPhysio, Ali, who I pretty much reckon has saved my sanity by fixing my arms!

laura

The baby clothes are really coming together now, but I can't believe how tiny they are! I've never made baby clothes before and they are so incredibly TINY!!!!

I have to keep on stopping myself from adding extra inch or two to make them bigger all round...

laura

The 17th century christening was last weekend - here are some pictures of the kit when I had just finished it. It fitted the baby (phew!) and everyone looked great and the mother laid on a great spread of 17th century feasting food, all on wooden or pewter plates, with ale or wine to drink: cold meats, pease pudding, different breads, spiced fruit, candied fruit, exotic brand-new foreign vegetables like the potato!

http://thehistoricalhousekeeper.blogspot.com/

laura